The article is devoted to the study of Bosporus bronze coins with the monogram BAE on the reverse. The objects of the study were both initially imprinted images and over-markings on the obverse. The appearance on them of the busts and symbols of Gorgon, Isis, Zeus Amon, and Serapis is not accidental. After all, before the end of the release of bronze with the monogram BAE they were not respected at the state level in the Bosporus state. This fact can be explained by the desire of their issuer, apparently Polemon I, not only to legitimize, but also to sanctify his power. To this end, he planted in it the cults of unknown gods in the region, whom he considered his patrons. The result was an outrage of the majority of the local residents. Increasing of the social tension in the Bosporus state led to decreasing of the zone of influence of its sovereign. As a result, Polemon I began to feel a shortage of funds, reflected not only in the chronic damage to the bronze coin, but also in its counter-marking. On the coins, images of the gods revered in the Bosporus state were placed. However, this did not reconcile Polemon I with his Northern Black Sea subjects. The Romans remained the only support of his regime. For this reason, by the end of the reign of Polemon I, on his bronze, there appeared countermarks glorifying G. Julius Caesar and Augustus. However, the authorities of the Empire understood that the obvious antagonism between Polemon I and his unwilling subjects could lead not only to the collapse of the regime of this sovereign and to a systemic crisis in the Black Sea region but also to the emergence of an anti-Roman center of influence in the region. Moreover, the inhabitants of the Bosporus sought only to restore the situation that had developed under Asander. They also wanted to honor the gods of their fathers. Therefore, the Romans not only distanced themselves from Polemon I, but also found it possible soon after his death to find a common language with the Mithridatides. Thus, the failures of this sovereign pushed the parties to work out a compromise that extended the existence of the Bosporan kingdom for another five centuries.

One of the most urgent tasks facing archaeologists working in the Mountainous Crimea is the timely study of the objects with well-preserved ancient layers. Taking into account this need, the employees of the Yalta Historical-Literary Museum in 2015 conducted excavations on the territory of the I. Belyansky cave explored by speleologists in 2011. As a result, a new speleoarcheological object was discovered that was used during several centuries. The artifacts and anthropological findings found here suggest that an early medieval cemetery would have been built in the cave. The cave would have been as well a temporary refuge. In addition, the cave was of economic importance. During the summer, it served as a kind of “refrigerator”, as it is witnessed by the discovery of iron hooks. However, the cave had no cultic significance.

Объектом нашего исследования стали контрамарки, встречающиеся на монетах этого северопонтийского государя. Считаем, что их оттискивали при Полемоне I. Так, выявленную нами надчеканку с дифферентом «палица» выбивали на монетном дворе стратегии Диоскуриады. Датируем ее первым выступлением жителей Боспора против Полемона I, т.е. 14 г. до н.э. Звездовидную контрамарку использовали на монетном дворе аспургиан. Она появилась в результате восстания в азиатской части Боспора, вызванного браком Полемона I с Пифодоридой. Эту надчеканку начали оттискивать на монетах в 12 г. до н.э. Ее использовали до момента гибели упомянутого римского ставленника. Монограмму, состоящую их символов «», «» и «», разобранную нами на вновь выявленной надчеканке, также датируем 12 г. до н.э. Читаем в ней первые буквы имени и указание на должность вельможи — лидера восставших, до этого управлявшего Танаисом и его округой. Полагаем, что при Полемоне I в восточной части Боспорского царства возникали региональные центры власти, неподконтрольные официальному Пантикапею. Они могли санкционировать контрамаркирование. Судя по надчеканкам, большая их часть просуществовала сравнительно недолго. Так, монеты с контрамаркой «палица» крайне редки. Нечасто встречаются и бронзы с выбитой на них монограммой. В то же время звездовидная контрамарка оттиснута на множестве оболов, обращавшихся в эпоху Асандра. Полагаем, что это обстоятельство свидетельствует о продолжительности периода деятельности использовавшего ее эмиссионного центра, и, следовательно, санкционировавшего надчеканивание органа власти. Считаем, что появление контрамарок свидетельствует о тяжести кризиса, поразившего Боспорское царство на рубеже н.э., вызванного грубым вмешательством Рима во внутренние дела этого государства. The paper presents a study of countermarks on coins of Asander, a Bosporus archon. We believe that the countermarks when stamped at the time of Polemon I. We have discovered that the countermark with a mace, or a fighting stick different was stamped at the Dioscurias strategy mint. We date the countermark back to 14 BC, which was the time when the Bosporians confronted Polemon I for the first time. A star-like countermark was used at the mint of Aspurgians and appeared as a result of the uprising against Polemon I in the Asian side of Bosporus as a reaction to Polemon I’s marriage to Pifodorida. This countermark had been stamped starting from 12 BC and used until the death of the Roman appointee. We have analyzed the monogram containing the symbols of “”, “” and “”, on the newly identified countermark and we also date it back to 12 BC. We believe that these symbols stand for the first letters of the name and indicate the position of the nobleman who was the rebel leader and had ruled Tanais and the neighbouring towns before the Roman appointee. We believe that at the time of Polemon I there were regional power centers emerging in the eastern part of the Bosporan Kingdom beyond the control of the official Panticapaeum, and such centers could authorize countermarking. Judging by the countermarks, most of them lasted for a relatively short time. For example, coins with a mace countermark were extremely rare, as were bronze coins with a monogram. At the same time, there was a star-like countermark on the set of obols circulating in the time of Asander. In our opinion, this fact testifies to the duration of the emission center and the power body authorizing the countermarks on coins. We believe that the countermarks on coins indicate how severe the crisis in the Bosporan Kingdom was in terms of the state’s reaction towards the Roman interference in kingdom’s internal affairs at the turn of the new age.

The article is the first description of the complex of roof tiles of the 1st group according to the Chersonesian classification, discovered during the excavations of the urban quarter at the Eski-Kermen plateau in 2003—2008, 2013, 2015—2017 (headed by A. I. Aibabin and E. A. Khayredinova). It was argued that this group of roof tiles was made in the medieval Cherson or in its neighborhood. In the excavated part of the Eski-Kermena quarter, its volume was 9.7 % of the total number of tiles. The most of this group of tiles was found in the layers of destruction of the manor houses II and III. Probably shortly before the destruction of the quarter in the late 13th century, the tile imported from Cherson was used for the reconstruction of the roofs of these manors. Many ceramides had relief marks in the form of Greek letters, symbols, images of animals, birds and humans. Some of them are identical to the roof tiles from the excavations of Cherson. Thus, the tile, along with other handicraft products, was a part of the range of goods brought from Cherson to the Eski-Kermen plateau.

The organization of a reliable engineering defense of the Tauric Chersonesos (Cherson) from the fourth to the sixth centuries has been studied using architectural and epigraphical monuments as well as narrative sources and archeological artifacts. The author distinguishes several stages of Byzantine military construction in the city and comes to the conclusion on the permanence of this process. The paper focuses on the main causes of military-engineering activities: preparation for holding off an attack of the nomadic peoples of the Huns (in 375) and Göktürks (in 576), the realization of the imperial military construction program of Justinian I (527—565), as well as the need to restore the fortifications of Cherson after the devastating earthquakes of 480, 554, and 557. The author states that the defensive buildings erected in the late fourth century, the last quarter of the firth century, and the first third and the second half of the sixth century protected the Tauric Chersonesus (Cherson) from hostile attacks and ensured strategic interests of Byzantium in the Northern Coast of the Black Sea.

The problem of localization of the “Parthenon Cave” reported by the “Lives of the Bishops of Cherson” has repeatedly been the subject of scientific research. As a result, many versions were made for scientific discussion in the opinion of their creators, which made it possible to determine its location. My research was conducted to analyze these hypotheses. Having studied the issue, I come to the conclusion that the data of the topography of Chersonesos—Cherson make it possible to most convincingly link the sought-after monument with the Martyrium with the underground crypt in quarter III in the eastern part of the city. The sanctuary that existed here a few dozen meters from the temenos Parthenon is possible from the end of the Hellenistic era or from the first centuries CE. In the 4th century. it was abandoned and in its place arose the economic complex of early Byzantine times. Then, after events unknown to us, most likely connected with the pious searches of townspeople by their Christian relics, it again became the place of worship of Christians who arranged their sacred places in return for pagan ones.

The subject of study are trade relations in the 9th — 13th centuries. in the South of Eastern Europe, or, more precisely, in one of the regions of Ancient Rus — on the Left bank of the Middle Dniester within the Khmelnytsky region of Ukraine. Considerable attention was paid to the identification of trade routes passing through this territory. In the course of the research, the facts that were suitable for covering trade relations in the region in the 9th — 11th centuries were summarized and investigated. As a result, I concluded that trade in the region predominantly had the form of commodity exchange. And it involved the population of settlements of various social types. It was established that from the region, primarily agricultural products and fisheries were exported: fur, honey, wax, and fish.

Tshinetsky cultural circle (TCC) is a group of related archaeological cultures of the Late Bronze Age in forest and steppe zones of Eastern Europe. It embraces the territory from the Oder River basin in the west to the Desna basin in the east, from the Baltic in the north to the border of the right-bank forest-steppe and steppe in the south. TCC area is divided into Western (Baltic Sea Basin) and the Eastern (Black Sea basin) arrays. To the west array belongs Tshinets culture, to the east — Komarov (in the forest) and Sosnitsa (in Polesie) cultures. The only category of culturally significant artifacts for the entire TCC area is a ceramic complex, especially tulip vessels with S-shaped profile and bowls. The origins of morphology of the vessels with S-shaped profile are traced in the archaeological cultures of the Middle Bronze Age of South Baltic (Riesenbecher type vessels). Throughout the entire development the TCC was influenced by the cultural formatuions of the steppe zone of Eastern Europe. The penetration Tshinets-Komorov pottery and metallic adornments in area of steppe cultures of the Northwest Black Sea littoral is traced.

The object of this study is a selection of stone drilled tools found at different times in the city of Yalta and in its surroundings as random finds. At present, they are kept in the Yalta Historical-Literary Museum. These tools are stone drilled axes-hammers, hammers and pickaxes. In the course of the study, it was established that the axes-hammers are to be identified as instruments of the pit cultural-historical community. The most illustrative example of this group is the stone bec de corbin, direct analogues of which are found in the sites of the steppe Eneolithic of the Black Sea and the late Trypillia. It was concluded that the Southern shore was inhabited by tribes of the same cultural and historical communities as those of the Steppes of the Northern Black Sea Coast and the foothills of the Crimea.

With archaeological studies of the Anapa area, the territory of the historical Syndika, it was established that the first contacts of the Greek world with the local population date back to the late seventh—early sixth centuries BCE. The active development of the coast of Syndika by the Greeks begun in the second half of the sixth century BCE, when there are here the Alekseevskoe and Anapskoye settlements. The Anapa settlement soon became a significant center. Probably it is this colony that was known to ancient authors as Syndica or the Syndician harbour. Traces of destruction and fires of the late sixth and fifth centuries BCE, discovered with archaeological excavations, indicate the unstable situation in Syndica before its inclusion into the Bosporus state and the emergence of the Bosporan polis of Gorgippia in the place of the Syndician harbour. The materials of the necropolis of the Anapa settlement and sparse epigraphic monuments testify to the ethnic heterogeneity of its population that included people from Greek centers and representatives of barbarian peoples.

The geography of the so-called princely finds, related to the last third of the 4th — first half of the 5th century on the northern and western periphery of the Black Sea steppes, occupied at that time by the Huns, is considered. These findings are associated with sedentary populations, since they are located on the territory where archeological cultures of sedentary barbarians are recorded. The geography of their distribution allows us to identify centers of power, so-called barbarian “kingdoms” on the outskirts of the Hunnic steppe. These centers of power were undoubtedly located in the zone of military and political domination of the Huns. In relation to the sedentary barbarians dependent on them, the Huns used two forms of control. In the first case, power was exercised through the agent appointed by the Huns. The second form of government presupposes the existence of vassal barbarous political formations, where the Huns used the power of a local sedentary aristocracy.

The object of this study is the Byzantine bronze weight found in 2017. The cross and the weight designation “ΓΒ” are visible. Therefore, there is every reason to identify it as a two-ounce weft. However, the process of its production was not completed. The root of the weaver was not polished, there are no traces of silver inlay on its sides. Most probably, the weight was rejected after the first weigh-in, because it weighs considerably less than the standard. We think that the studied weight was made on the spot, quite possible on the territory of Gurzuf. It is hard to believe that a defective, unformed properly dumbbell was brought from another center. This circumstance allows us to make a historical conclusion. We admit that Gorzuvitas’s importance as a regional trading center was relatively high—at least, sufficiently for establishing production of weights for its needs.

The article reviews such as a group of early medieval swords with cross-guards having three main elements: a collar, a quillon and a sleeve. A significant number of such swords as well as separate cross-guards were found in Eastern Europe and are dated from the 9th c. (possibly as early as the second half of the 8th c.) to the 11th c. This design of cross-guards is typical of the Mediterranean region. Its wide spread across Eastern Europe should be linked to the influence of the Byzantine Empire, where comparable items can be found in art. The paper categorizes cross-guards of this kind into three main types and describes the principal trends in their evolution: reduction of collar and sleeve height and increasing quillon length. Two types of pommels in such swords are described, as well as remaining elements of scabbards.

Fire arms were manufactured in Georgia from 17th — 18th cc. Because of this the fire arms were widely spread among the population. The Georgians actively used guns in the 17th and especially 18th cc. Furthermore, the production from Tbilisi spread to the neighbouring countries. Flintlock guns consisted of three major details: barrel, flintlock mechanism, and stock. The sources confirm that the flintlock mechanisms and stocks were produced locally. As to the gun barrels, the situation was quite different. Imported gun barrels from Crimea were generally used to produce fire arms in Tbilisi and the rest of Georgia. It was because of Crimean gun barrels that the most commonly used term for a gun in Georgia was “Kirimi”/”Khirimi”. The Ethnology and Modern History Guns Fund of the Georgian National Museum (Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia) also hosts hundreds of guns with imported Crimean gun barrels produced in the 18th c. Tbilisi. The import of gun barrels was well documented in the Georgian customs tax tariff, which enables the scholars to establish guns’ prices in those times.

In the article the beginning of the study of marble architectural details brought to Tauric Chersonesos from Byzantine workshops is considered. The first author who turned to the study of the early Byzantine basilica of Tauric Chersonesos and their marble decor was Alexandr L. Bertier Delagarde. He made an important conclusion about the origin of marbles from Proconessos, but the dates he proposed were not confirmed. Unfortunately, the excavations of Tauric Chersonesos under the guidance of the Archaeological Commission (Sankt-Petersburg) was conducted not professionally, therefore there is no information on the structure with which the capitals and other elements are connected. The publication of the marble catalog conceived by Dmitry V. Ainalov did not take place. For the first time the typological and chronological classification of the marbles of Tauric Chersonesos was first realized by Anatoly L. Yakobson more than a century later and a quarter after the beginning of the excavations of the basilicas of Tauric Chersonesos.